“Hello.”
“Ollie! Hey, um…”
“What do you want?”
“Why do you have to sound like that? I just want to talk to you about something.”
Ollie huffed. “Then talk.”
Jeffrey audibly took a deep breath. “Um, so I told you I gave birth a while ago.”
“Yeah… Congrats. I saw the pictures.”
“Yeah. So, um, you haven't met Noe in person yet, and I was wondering if I could come over?”
Ollie sighed. “Jeffrey…” He didn't really want his cousin in his space right now, but this was family, and he had been thinking about meeting this new baby. “Wait, where are you staying?”
“I'm still at APID right now.”
“I'm there right now, so just tell me where to go.”
“Oh, okay! This is good. I was going to have to ask Korsy to drive me, but now I don't have to bother with him…”
Ollie could hear a recognisable ‘Hey!’ in the background of the call and he froze up a little. “Korsy's with you right now?”
“Yeah… He’d updating me about Bler stuff and he wanted to see the baby, but it didn't feel fair that he'd meet them before you. He's not family.”
“You're right about that. Kick him out.”
Ollie could hear that Jeffrey had moved away from his phone but could still make out him saying, ‘See? He doesn't want you around either. You don't need to drive me, so go away.’
Korsy's answer was inaudible, but Jeffrey came back groaning. “He won't go. He says he's gotta supervise.”
“He doesn't have to supervise shit! He's just making excuses!” Ollie growled.
“Well, I can't get him to go away, so are you coming or not? I thought you liked this guy.”
Ollie groaned in frustration. “Just tell me where to go.”
Jeffrey told him his section and room number, so Ollie asked the nurse at reception how to get there.
“Do you have a pass?” she asked. She wasn’t the nurse he was used to, and her blank expressions made him a little nervous.
“I have this pass,” Ollie said, showing the key card he used to get in to see the doctor.
“That'll only get you as far as the medical ward,” the nurse explained. “You need a visitor's pass to get to the residences.”
“Can I get one here?” Ollie asked. “My cousin lives here.”
The nurse sighed, shaking her head. “You need to call ahead to the front desk. In non-emergency situation, it can take a week to process a pass.”
“That's absurd!” Ollie said. “My cousin just had a baby and I'm just trying to visit for the first time. I'm his closest relative.”
“As cousins?” the nurse inquired.
“Yes. I'm even his emergency contact.”
“Well, contact,” the nurse said. “Contact the front desk upstairs. Now, do you have any question related to your care here today, or can I check in the next person behind you?”
Ollie didn't want to hold up the line, so he stepped aside and reluctantly called Korsy.
“Hello!” Korsy greeted, all too cheerfully.
“Korsy,” Ollie said directly. “Come get me.”
“Huh? I thought you were coming here,” Korsy said.
“I don't have access. I assume you do.”
“Ah, right. Are you at medical?”
Ollie paused. “Just meet me at the main entrance.”
“Got it. I'll see you there.”
Ollie just hung up and made his way to the elevator. He was the first to the main entrance, but as soon as he sat down, the other elevator opened and Korsy stepped out.
As soon as his gaze found Ollie, he smiled and walked over, arms wide. “Hey!”
Ollie frowned and got up but refused the hug. “Korsy, I’m still not ready. I just want to see my…nibling, right?”
“That's right. I've also heard nix or niephling,” Korsy said.
Ollie pulled a face. “I dunno about that last one…”
Korsy shrugged. “Up to you, I guess. The kid can't speak.”
“Right…” Ollie walked back over to the elevator. “Let's go.”
“Yeah, I'm coming.”
Korsy and Ollie hopped back in the lift and Korsy swiped his personnel key card. The buttons for the floors he had access to lit up and it was nearly all of them. Ollie was a tad jealous, but it only made sense for someone working there.
In the elevator, Korsy tried to start a conversation, but Ollie cut him off.
“I'm not here for you, to be clear. I appreciate you facilitating this visit with my cousin, but I'm not ready for us to talk again.”
“Okay. I just wanted to update you,” Korsy said.
“Update?” Ollie frowned. “Why?”
“Because I'm gonna be away for a bit,” Korsy said. “Two months. Europe.”
“So?” Ollie said. “You've been away before. That's part of your job.”
“Right. But before, I'd let you know when I'm back, but since you insist on messaging me first, I wanted you to know when and how long I'd be away, in case you reach out and I can't answer,” Korsy said. “I don't want you to think I'm ignoring you.”
“Why wouldn't you be able to answer?” Ollie said. “It's the 21st century. Everywhere has wifi and you can't tell me APID doesn't afford you a roaming plan.”
Korsy smirked a little. “They do, but sometimes I gotta go to really remote places with no connectivity.”
“Remote?” Ollie raised an eyebrow. “In Europe? One of the most densely populated places in the world?”
“There’s still some nooks and crannies.”
The doors opened, and they stepped out. Ollie ended the conversation there and just looked for the room number Jeffrey gave him. He didn't have to look too hard though as Jeffrey was waiting outside, sitting with Ben.
Ollie approached quickly. “Jeffrey.”
“Ollie, hey…” Jeffrey got up slowly and leaned against the wall. “That was fast.”
“Yeah, I had—Oh.” Ollie was startled as Ben was suddenly hugging his legs. “Hey, Benny…” He reached down and ruffled the little guy's hair. It warmed him a little to see that his nephew still missed him. “It's been a little bit, huh?”
Ben still wasn't the most articulate one year old and could only grip Ollie's pants tight. “Awie.”
“Alright. Up you go.” Ollie managed to get him off his leg so he could pick him up. “Jeffrey, where's this baby I'm supposed to meet?”
“They're inside asleep,” Jeffrey said, not moving.
“So…are you going to let us in to meet them?” Ollie asked.
Jeffrey pouted. “They just settled down… I don't want to wake them.”
“You can't leave the baby alone in there unsupervised,” Ollie said.
“I know, but listen, it is so hard to get Noe down for a nap, and they cry so much, like, can't I just have a minute?” Jeffrey pleaded.
Ollie frowned but really Jeffrey did look rather exhausted. “Then stay out here and I'll go in myself. I didn't come down here just to hang around in the hall. You asked me to come meet the baby.”
“…” Jeffrey looked at the door and just shrugged. “Okay, okay…”
He unlocked the door, and it slid open.
The lights were out inside, but there was a nightlight plugged in over the crib at far left side of the room. From its dim illumination and the light from the hall, Ollie could see the mess of the room and overall disarray. He didn't know why he would expect any better from Jeffrey, but it was a bit disappointing to see.
Ollie went up to the crib and looked in. The baby inside was fast asleep, sucking on a pacifier. Ollie had never met Wano, so he had no idea what manner of alien to expect, but this purple babe seemed only significantly inhuman in one department.
“Holy shit, Jeffrey,” Ollie said, turning back as his cousin made his way up behind him. “You gave birth to a toddler.”
“Shh, Noe is perfectly normal size for their species,” Jeffrey said.
“Can I see?” Korsy asked, now very curious as he waited by the door.
Ollie waved him over. “You have to see this baby. This kid's probably bigger than Ben already.”
Jeffrey gave his cousin a quick punch in the arm. “Stop.”
Korsy approached swiftly and as quietly as he could, but when he saw Noe, he forgot himself. “Whoa! That kid’s ready to do taxes!”
“Korsy!” Ollie snapped back quietly, but it was too late.
Noe started to stir, and an achy little whine started up behind the pacifier.
Jeffrey’s voice audibly broke. “No…”
“Shit, I'm sorry,” Korsy said.
Jeffrey reluctantly reached into the crib and lifted Noe out. The pacifier was promptly spat out and Noe started crying, wriggling about and pulling on Jeffrey's clothing.
“Noe, come on, you need a nap,” Jeffrey pleaded weakly, trying to bounce his baby gently. “I need you to nap…”
Ollie watched as Jeffrey struggled to even just hold the upset infant and he looked to Ben in his arms who just watched his sibling without saying a word. The two kids couldn't be any more different. “Are they hungry?” he offered.
“They're never not hungry,” Jeffrey said, exasperated. Nevertheless, he sat down on the bed and lifted his shirt. The babe latched on as soon as their mouth was close enough and started feeding hungrily.
“Eager beaver,” Korsy commented.
“Don’t watch me nurse,” Jeffrey snapped, covering Noe’s head.
“You got me here and you saw the baby,” Ollie concurred. “You can go now, Korsy.”
“Come on, really?” Korsy groused. “I can’t just hang out for a bit?”
“This isn’t some kind of chill session or something,” Ollie said. “My cousin and I have things to discuss.”
“Do we?” Jeffrey pulled a face as he laid his head back against the headboard. “I don’t think we do… I just invited you to see the baby and that’s it.”
“I think we need to talk about your current living conditions,” Ollie said, motioning to the disaster that was the room. “How do you expect to raise two kids in this mess?”
Jeffrey just closed his eyes as he shrugged.
“Really, Jeff, your cousin just wants to know you’re gonna be well off,” Korsy said.
Jeffrey didn’t respond to that.
Ollie huffed and put Ben down on the bed. “You can’t just ignore all your problems.”
“He’s asleep,” Korsy stated.
“No, he’s just pretending so he doesn’t have to talk to me,” Ollie said.
“No, I think he’s actually asleep,” Korsy said, putting his hands on his hips. “He would’ve gotten mad at me for calling him ‘Jeff’.”
Ollie narrowed his eyes and then touched his cousin’s shoulder. “Jeffrey. Hey, Jeffrey.”
Jeffrey didn’t answer and his head rolled to the side.
“Damn, he’s really fast asleep,” Ollie said, a bit dumbfounded.
“I mean, you saw how tired he was,” Korsy considered. “Looked like he was gonna collapse. New babies can be rough.”
Ollie sighed, sitting down gently on the edge of the bed. “Noe’s definitely a different baby than Ben. He hardly ever cried.”
“Noe’s two babies in a trench coat, I think,” Korsy said. “No way your cousin gave birth to that small giant. I can’t believe it.”
Ollie pet Ben’s head gently. “You wanna come outside with your uncle Ollie while your daddy takes a nap?”
Ben nodded quickly, starting to scoot towards the edge of the bed and dropping a leg down.
Ollie scooped him up and went to the door. “Korsy. Out. Let’s go.”
“I’m coming!” Korsy said, following him.
They went back out into the hall and Ollie closed the door behind them. Hopefully Jeffrey could get some good sleep in for a bit without them.
“Is there a park or something around here?” Ollie asked. “I doubt Ben's had a chance to run around… Wait, Ben can you walk yet?” He put the baby down, stood him up, and Ben clumsily toddled towards him. “Geez, I missed a lot with you…”
“They grow up really fast,” Korsy said. “Can't be there to see everything.”
Ollie looked at Korsy. “So, is there a park or what?”
“Yeah, yeah. There's a park at the school,” Korsy said. “We can go over there. I'll show you.”
Korsy took them up and outside, over to APID E and their schoolyard. There were two different playgrounds set up: one small squishy one for the kindergarten and one big jungle gym for the elementary school. They took Ben down to the squishy one and Ollie slipped him into a baby swing.
“I used to take Ben to the swings outside my apartment,” Ollie said, making sure Ben’s legs were properly through the holes. “I know he doesn't emote very much but I'd get a few baby giggles out of it.”
Korsy sat down on the wood logs that framed the parks and watched them. “I want to hear Ben giggle. I don't think I've heard that.”
“Let's see.” Ollie stood in front and gave Ben a little push. Ben stared at him looking shocked and his legs started to wiggle. “Oh yeah, the giggles are coming. Those are giggle wiggles.”
Ben grabbed the chain of the swings and continued to stare at Ollie. Ollie gave him a smile and kept pushing him, a little higher each time. “You're flying, Ben.”
Ben started to smile, and he kicked his feet out when he went backwards excitedly. After some build up, he started giggling, kicking his legs about every time Ollie pushed him back.
“Oh wow! Look at that,” Korsy said. “A real giggler!”
Ollie chuckled a bit. “Yeah, you love the swings, don't you, Ben?”
Ben didn't stop giggling, and just bounced about in his seat.
“Most energy I've ever seen from that kid,” Korsy said. “Ollie, you're really good with babies.”
“Just this one,” Ollie said. “Ben's a very calm and attentive kid. Hardly any trouble.”
“I see that.” Korsy propped his head up over his knee. “But I think it's more about how you know how to talk to him and understand him. I'm sure you'd even be fine with a baby like Noe.”
“Oh god… If they cry as much as my cousin's saying, I think I'd go mad,” Ollie said. “It's not like Ben never cried. And I'd miss work after nights without sleep. I can't deal with that.”
“I mean, was your work understanding at least?” Korsy asked.
“Yeah,” Ollie said. “Honestly, I had to bring Ben in with me once and my boss thought he was mine and gave me the day off… I was kinda surprised, but apparently, they take family building really seriously there. Next day she was like ‘You should have let me know you were going to have a baby and we would've set you up with paternity leave and yada yada yada’ and I had to break it to her that I was just watching my nephew. I was still off the hook for the day off though.”
Korsy chuckled. “Yeah, APID's really chill about that stuff too. If I ever had a kid, they'd make sure we were taken care of.”
“That's good, I guess.” Ollie kept his attention on Ben. “You wanna go higher?”
Ben nodded. “Up! Up!”
Ollie pushed him a little higher, making sure to back up so the momentum didn't swing the kid right into his chest.
“Ollie…” Korsy started. “You were at a doctor's appointment today, right?”
Ollie frowned. “I already said I don't want to talk about it.”
Korsy pouted. “Why not? We're just talking. I just want to make sure you're all good.”
“Well, I'm not all good,” Ollie said. “But I don't need to discuss with you.”
“Not good?” Korsy blanched. “You're not—”
Ollie groaned. “I'm not pregnant, Korsy! Geez, get over it.”
“Okay, okay,” Korsy put his hands up. “But then what's not good?”
“I still have the damn organ,” Ollie admitted. “The doctor said taking that drug as much as I did might've made it permanent.”
“Shit,” Korsy said. “That sucks, dude. I'm sorry.”
“It's frustrating…” Ollie started to slow Ben's swings down. “That crap could affect my body for the rest of my life. My body, my sex life, my hormones, who knows what…”
“That's rough. I don't know what to say,” Korsy said.
“And thinking about it,” Ollie went on, “Jeffrey's probably taken it way more than me. His is probably permanent too. So even though they confiscated that powder shit, he can still go out and have as many random alien babies as he wants with dudes who are just going to leave him in the end.”
“Come on, have some faith in your brother. Wano's coming back and Eclulans don't fuck around,” Korsy said.
“Cousin.”
“Huh?”
“You called Jeffrey my brother.”
“Oh. Sorry, I mean,” Korsy scratched his head, “Is there any meaningful difference? You were raised together, right? You love him like a brother, right?”
“Still a cousin.” Ollie shrugged.
“You call Ben your nephew.”
“Yeah. He's my cousin once removed, you want me to call him that every time?” Ollie huffed. “Anyway, it's not Wano I'm worried about this time. It's Jeffrey. I don't think he'll last a year without someone to fuck around with.”
“So, you think Jeffrey's going to cheat on Wano?” Korsy asked.
“He’s up to his neck right now,” Ollie said. “Only way he knows how to ‘solve' his problems is to find a man who'll solve them for him.”
Korsy knit his brow. “You really think that lowly of him. You don't think he might've learned something after Bler?”
“Don't say that name.” Ollie stopped Ben's swing.
“Jeez, sorry… I mean, I hate that guy too, you know.”
“If it wasn't for him, Jeffrey and I both wouldn't be in this mess,” Ollie said.
“Sure, but you wouldn't have Ben, right?” Korsy said. “You love this kid.”
“Ends don't justify the means.” Ollie looked over to Korsy. “Now, I know you have a question so just ask it.”
Korsy squirmed a little. “So, I mean… You told me we aren’t friends until you’re clear of the uterus business.”
“Yep.”
“So, what now? Are you just not going to have sex for the rest of your life?”
“Can you not say that in front of Ben?”
Korsy waved his arms. “You literally just said like a minute ago and you’ve sworn like so many times! And you told me to ask my question, I woulda waited.”
Ollie rolled his eyes. “Well anyway, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. The doctor said it's possible I could have a surgery to remove it, but that kind of stuff… I mean surgery is scary, right?”
“I guess.” Korsy thought about it. “Actually, I saw a video yesterday by a girl who said she had a bad reaction to anesthesia and was rendered permanently paralysed below the waist…”
Ollie’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding me right now? Don’t tell me that! That’s terrible! Now I’ll never be comfortable with a surgery.”
“I mean that was an incredibly rare reaction,” Korsy said. “It has a one in a million chance in happening and it already happened to her, so you’re clear.”
“That is not how statistics work, Korsy, holy hell,” Ollie frowned. “I am literally a statistician.”
“Is that what you do?” Korsy rubbed his neck. “You never told me.”
“You never asked,” Ollie said.
“That sounds really boring, damn,” Korsy said.
Ollie rubbed his forehead. “It’s mostly just differential and integral calculus. Really, it’s kinda easy.”
“You’re talking to straight Cs in math here,” Korsy said. “I don’t even know what a calculus is.”
Ollie scrunched his nose. “Anyway, right now I don’t want to get in bed with anyone any time soon until this is all figured out.”
“I mean, contraceptives are a thing,” Korsy said. “We could just, ya know, start using them.”
Ollie pursed his lips. “You can’t take a no?”
Korsy was taken aback. “I can 100% take a no! I’ve been taking nos! It’s just like, I don’t know that you even like hanging out with me if it’s not because we’re…doing it.”
“We’re hanging out right now and we’re not doing it,” Ollie said.
“You didn’t want me here at all though,” Korsy said.
“Because you keep probing me about this sex stuff!” Ollie said.
“Well, if we don’t have sex, will you still see me?” Korsy asked.
“Stop saying sex!”
“You just said it, so I said it! That’s like literally the whole thing! I don’t need it all the time, but our relationship was just that because that’s what you wanted so I gave it to you! It’s not the only thing I do! I can be platonic!”
They both went quiet and just looked at each other.
Ollie looked back to Ben was just staring up at him from the swing.
Ollie sighed and pet Ben’s head. “I guess… If you really just want to hang out to hang out, we can do stuff like that.”
“Yeah! Okay, cool.” Korsy licked his lips. “See, we figured it out, right?”
“Yeah.”
“We just needed to talk it through. Imagine that.”
“Yeah…” Ollie looked at Korsy. “So, I guess then if I can’t contact you, you can message me after you get back from your trip.”
Korsy lit up. “Yeah? You’re giving me permission to call you?”
“To message me. Just to hang out and stuff.”
Korsy nodded quickly. “Yeah, just to hang out and stuff.”
Ollie’s phone started to vibrate so he answered it. “Hello?”
“Ollie!” It was Jeffrey and he sounded worried. “Do you have Ben?”
“Yeah, don’t worry. We just went out to the park.”
“You should’ve told me! I woke up and he was just gone, I…”
“Relax, you were exhausted,” Ollie said. “We just took him off your hands for a bit so you could nurse Noe in peace. We’ll bring him back now.”
“We? You’re still with Korsy?”
“Yeah, he showed me where the park at APID was.”
“There’s a park?”
“What? You mean you never took Ben to the park?”
“I didn’t know there was a park. We’re in the middle of nowhere. How would I know where to go?”
“You just ask somebody. Really, it’s not that hard.”
“Just come back right now. Noe’s asleep again so I gotta take advantage to give Ben a bath.”
“We’re coming, relax. Clean up your floor.”
“Bye. Ollie.” Jeffrey hung up.
Ollie rolled his eyes and put away his phone so he could take Ben out of the swing seat. “Come on, big guy.”
“I’m coming,” Korsy said, getting up.
“I was talking to Ben.”
“Oh.”